Agony
by AthenianDaughter
Summary: When Annabeth is fatally wounded in a quest for the Gods, Percy starts to doubt the Gods and his importance to them. Locked in a battle with his own emotions he must decide whether to fall to the darkness or find light in Annabeth's recovery. However, no one knows if she's going to wake up.
Annabeth ducked as the monster lunged at her. I slashed at its eyes as its head curved back towards me. We had been fighting for what seemed like hours. For whatever reason, the scaly hide of the reptilian monster was impenetrable, even with celestial bronze swords like mine. It had a long torso, six lizard-like legs, and three heads. A spider head, a snake head, and a lizard head. Annabeth got in closer to jab with her dagger at the spider head. Meanwhile, I battled it out with the snake head, but the lizard was causing all kinds of problems. I tried (and failed) one more to hack off at least one head, but the lizard head rammed into me, knocking me to the ground. Riptide skidded several feet away me, much too far to run without being noticed.

The reptiles decided that I wasn't a problem and directed their attention to Annabeth. I got up, but without Riptide, I was defenseless. In the few seconds it would take for it to reappear in my pocket, Annabeth or I could be killed. However, he could not let Annabeth fight this monster alone. So, naturally, I insulted the monster.

"Hey, Six Eyes! How do you have three heads and still no brain?" I waved my arms above my head, trying to distract one of the heads. Six Eyes turned to me. The monster lunged, and I rolled to the side, however the lizard head grabbed my jacket in its teeth. I was starting to really hate lizards. It whipped its head around, slamming me into the snake head. Fire shot up and down my side, wrapping around my body in a red-hot thread. My body went limp, but the lizard proceed to swing his head back, preparing to ram my body again.

Then, Annabeth made one of stupidest decisions a genus could have made. She ran at the lizard head, and stabbed it in the eye. The monster freaked out, dropping me on my face (am experience I would not recommend) and tore it's lizard head away from Annabeth, the dagger still in his eye. The snake head turned and sunk its fangs in her shoulder. I have never heard Annabeth scream like that. She went limp, and the snake head dropped her. I ran towards her, but the lizard had other ideas. The lizard head rammed the side of its face into me, but in a rage-fueled fury I pushed it back. I grabbed the dagger in its bleeding eye and ripped it through its hide, and down its cheek before it exploded into golden dust. I ran towards Annabeth. Her face was sweating, her hair was plastered to her face, and she was paler than Nico. I hugged her and called Ms. O'Leary, tears streaming down my face.

"I love you, Annabeth. Stay with me. You will be okay." she managed a pain-filled smile.

"I love you too, Seaweed Brain." her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she passed out. I carefully held her onto Ms. O'Leary, and silently prayed to every god I knew that Annabeth would survive.

She had been out for two days. She lay in the infirmary, in a comatose state. I could barely eat, sacrificing most of my meals to any god of healing there was. No matter how hard Will and the other healers tried, they couldn't get her to wake up. No amount of Ambrosia, Nectar, or healing was enough. The third day. That was when the nightmares started. That was when I started to question everything. Annabeth was the light of my world. And now she was gone.

I was falling. Falling for eternity. I could hear a voice whispering, but I couldn't make out the words. I hit the ground, and shattered into a million pieces. Agony. I heard a new voice that was hauntingly familiar. Luke.

"Did you ever question them? The gods? You were lucky. You got claimed by a powerful god. You were able to play hero. Save the gods! Save the world! They let you think you were important. They played you. You were a pawn in an elaborate game of chess. Now, they are done with you. In hundred years they won't remember your name. You were just a mortal. Now, you need help. Badly. But not a single one of them is willing to do anything. To them, you, Annabeth, Thalia, all of you are ants. No matter how powerful, you are vermin to them. Kind of helpful, kind of cute, but insignificant. Everyone that died. Me, Bianca, Zoe, Leo, none of us mattered to them." The voices changed now. It was everyone he failed. The ones he couldn't save.

"You couldn't help me." Bianca hissed "You promised Nico."

"You didn't save me" Leo whispered "You let me die"

"You forgot about me" Bob said, betrayed.

"You left me and forgot about me," Calypso cried out. "Just like all the others."

"You let me down" Zoe whimpered. "All men do."

On and on the voices went, reminding him of every fight I'd ever lost.

"Stop! Stop it!" I screamed, but they continued.

"You can't save me" Annabeth hissed in my ear. "I thought you loved me"

"I do, I do, I love you so much." I pleaded with her

"Don't you see? You failed us. You let us down. You let me down. You couldn't save us?" she taunted.

I woke up, sweat drenching his sheets. This was the worst nightmare I'd had in years. It haunted me, making me think of some of my darkest fears. What scared me the most was how similar Luke's voice had sounded like mine.


End file.
